Multi-Disc Spinning Mesh Disc Reactor (MD-SMDR) for one-pot production of Active Pharmaceutical Intermediates

多盘纺丝网盘反应器（MD-SMDR）是SMDR的可扩展和灵活版本。SMDR由一个旋转圆盘组成，圆盘顶部放置催化剂布。由于与旋转盘相关联的离心力，在盘的中心处撞击的液体进料形成具有高剪切的薄膜。这导致薄液膜内的快速混合和与催化剂的更好接触，从而导致更快的产物形成。目前的生产使用分批技术，相对于SMDR，该技术缓慢且效率低下，因为它涉及几个耗时且耗能的下游加工步骤，特别是对于生产高纯度产品。实验室规模上的概念验证实例已经表明，与常规间歇式反应器相比，SMDR中的生产率和反应产率高100%，反应时间减少5倍。SMDR可以通过添加多个圆盘来扩大到MD-SMDR，从而无需完全重新设计反应器。MD-SMDR的设计允许一锅多催化剂反应，可以减少间歇性产品分离和纯化的需要，从而降低整体运营成本。制药行业垂直的活性药物成分（API）是MD-SMDR的直接目标市场，可以内部生产救生药物所需的药物中间体。在该项目中，我们正在开发和优化抗惊厥药物所需关键API的MD-SMDR。项目结束后，MD-SMDR版本将可供制药公司租赁/购买反应器单元，从而降低高资本投资风险和高价值原料药的市场就绪性。当前的疫情形势凸显了可靠的药品供应链的重要性，以及灵活运营以满足国家需求的必要性。MD-SMDR有可能通过最低的资本和运营成本实现医药中间体生产的范式转变，并改善英国制药行业的全球市场。此外，MD-SMDR有潜力通过以资源有效的方式（低生产成本和减少化学废物）运营，使制药行业实现清洁增长，与英国的工业战略之一保持一致。

The multi-disc spinning mesh disc reactor (MD-SMDR) is a scalable and a flexible version of the SMDR. The SMDR consists of a rotating disc with a catalyst cloth resting on top of the disc. The liquid feed impinged at the centre of the disc forms a thin film with a high shear due to the centrifugal force associated with the spinning disc. This results in fast mixing within the thin liquid film and better contact with the catalyst, resulting in faster product formation. Current manufacturing uses batch technology, which is slow and inefficient relative to the SMDR, as it involves several time consuming and energy intensive downstream processing steps, especially for manufacturing high purity products. Proof of concept examples on a lab scale have shown that productivity and reaction yield was 100% higher in the SMDR with a 5-fold reduction to the reaction time compared to conventional batch reactors. The SMDR can be scaled-up to MD-SMDR through the addition of multiple discs, eliminating the need for complete reactor re-design. The design of MD-SMDR allows for multi-catalyst reactions in one-pot, which can reduce the need for intermittent product separation and purification, thus reducing the overall operations cost.The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) vertical within the pharmaceutical sector is the immediate target market for the MD-SMDR, enabling in-house production of pharmaceutical intermediates required for life saving drugs. In this project, we are carrying out the development and optimisation of the MD-SMDR for key APIs required for anticonvulsant drugs. At the end of this project, a market ready MD-SMDR version will be available for pharmaceutical companies to either lease/buy the reactor units, reducing the risk of high capital investment and market readiness of high value APIs.The current pandemic situation has heightened the importance of a reliable supply chain of pharmaceuticals and a need for flexible operation to meet the national demand. The MD-SMDR has potential to enable a paradigm shift in the production of pharmaceutical intermediates through minimum capital and operating cost and improve the global market for UK's pharmaceutical sector. Additionally, the MD-SMDR has potential to enable clean growth in pharmaceutical industries through operating in a resource efficient way (low production cost and reduced chemical waste), aligning with one of the UK's industrial strategies.